The annual Liverpool Irish Festival features 35+ events, for adults and children, across 10 remarkable days (Thurs 17-Sun 27 Oct 2024). The festival opens with an official launch at the Liverpool Irish Centre, with performances from Sue Rynhart, Sinéad Campbell and others.
The Festival, a highlight of the UK cultural calendar, celebrates ‘departures’ as its core theme this year. Considering migrancy, displacement, changes in thinking and rejecting shame, their range of events span from children’s activities to rich historical Irish heritage. Their line-up includes an array of Irish artists and contributors from across the worlds of theatre, film, spoken word, visual arts and academia. Each connects with ‘departure’– whether focussed on the displacement of people or the advent of a new philosophy.
Programme headlines
Internationally acclaimed
The Armagh Rhymers feature as part of their annual
Family Day at
Museum of Liverpool, as well as delivering an adult performance:
The Trail of Tears –
Memory (26 Oct). Linking with their new Irish Famine vigil and official annual Irish Famine memorial (27 Oct) is new song —
The Ullaloo (I Cantwell, M Snape, 2024) commissioned specially this year. It will be sung here for the first time by the
Liverpool Irish Centre Choir. These events precede an
Irish Heritage Trust talk on
The Poor Helping the Poor. Several heritage tours are included this year, complemented by films, talks and book launches. Linked directly to ‘departures’ and
Liverpool Irish Famine Trail work, their
Revealing Trails exhibit offers a poignant look at contemporary views on An Gorta Mór, whilst their (
self-guided tour) reflects on Irish migration, settlement and legacy.
Theatre and books
In theatre, Manchán Magan brings
Arán Agus Im/
Bread and Butter to the
Liverpool Medical Institute, comparing language with baking.
Big Telly Productions consider mortality and digital afterlives in
Granny Jackson’s Dead, whilst
Circus 250’s
Am I Irish Yet? challenges assumptions around Irishness.
Those who enjoyed
Brave Maeve in 2023 will be thrilled that a second children’s volume will be released this year, with readings at
Central Library (Sat 19 Oct) and
The Old Library (TBC) and an exhibition at
St Helens Library (Mon 7 Oct-Sat 30 Nov 204).
In:Visible Women and exhibits
Work with
Fréa’s
Renewing Roots project brings two films highlighting Ireland’s care abuses, both to be shown on 2 Nov at
The Bluecoat. In Each Other’s Shelter W
e Survive and
Stolen (augmented with a Margo Harkin (director) interview and panel Q&A) each contribute to their
In:Visible Women work strand.
In their exhibitions they consider the departure of ash trees from our planet. Disease has swept through ash stocks. Michael ’Muck’ Murphy’s work employs the remaining wood
In the Window at the
Bluecoat Display Centre, whose garden facing windows peer on to the trunks of two felled ash trees. There will also be an eclectic retrospective of Irish makers on show, in the
Display Centre, looking back over their
In the Window exhibits from previous years.
Local talent
Celebrating local talent, specifically, they look at music and dance in their
Melody Maker and
George Ferguson Dance School night (
Palm House, Sun 20 Oct) called …
and so for now adieu/Slán leat. Referencing the North American wakes of the Irish Famine era, the two companies have collaborated to create a night of music and song that reflect leaving.
